What’s happening
The retail giant has partnered with Wing, a drone delivery company, to start drone deliveries for 11 Walmarts in Dallas-Fort Worth, including the location at 8520 N. Beach Street, said Catherine Lovett, the policy and community affairs manager for Wing.
Wing offered drone demonstrations at Ninnie Baird Park on Oct. 19, delivering candy, water bottles and other small items. The drones can carry 2.5 pounds of household items, groceries and over-the-counter medications.
“As this becomes more popular, [people] are more comfortable with it,” Fort Worth District 4 Councilman Charlie Lauersdorf said. “There are no real privacy concerns, which helps by having Wing come out, pull back the curtain and show there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
The breakdown
Through the Wing app, customers plug in their address then add small-package items to their delivery order. If the drone is unable to find the customer’s location, it will send a notification that it has returned to the store, Lovett said.
She added there could be contingencies for drone delivery, like if residents live in heavily wooded areas or are surrounded by power lines. The app has a notice customers must check to clarify they have cleared obstacles from the pinpointed location.
When the drone delivers items, it hovers about 20 feet in the air and drops the package down with a tether.
“It'll lower the package, unhook it, the spool then goes back up into the drone and the drone climbs back up to 200 feet, which is cruising altitude, and then takes off for speed,” Lovett said. “It's coming to us at 65 miles an hour.”
If the tether is tugged on three times to bring the drone closer to the ground, it will unhook itself for safety, Lovett said.
What else?
The drones are autonomous and use the GPS coordinates to set up a flight path to the customer’s location. However, FAA-certified pilots work out of Coppell to make sure the drones are operating properly and that there are no issues in flight, Lovett said.
Each drone can fly up to 400 feet, below the limit of planes and helicopters. It’s also programmed not to fly over restricted airspace and to avoid wildlife, such as migrating birds, Lovett said. They have 12 propellers for vertical movement, four for horizontal motion, and can still operate if one of those propellers stops working.
“The drone itself weighs about 11 pounds, Lovett said. “It's literally wrapped in styrofoam and recycled plastic parts. The goal is to make the drone sustainable, but also, in the event that there was an incident where there's a collision, the drone would break apart.”
The drones are stored at Walmart and operate between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.
What they’re saying
“There’s one less car on the road, that’s huge,” Lauersdorf said. “You’re going to start seeing more drones, which means less traffic.”
